The common origin of linear and nonlinear chiral multiplets in image mechanics Original Research Article

Elaborating on previous work [F. Delduc, E. Ivanov, Nucl. Phys. B 753 (2006) 211, hep-th/0605211; F. Delduc, E. Ivanov, Nucl. Phys. B 770 (2007) 179, hep-th/0611247], we show how the linear and nonlinear chiral multiplets of image supersymmetric mechanics with the off-shell content image can be obtained by gauging three distinct two-parameter isometries of the “root” image multiplet actions. In particular, two different gauge groups, one Abelian and one non-Abelian, lead, albeit in a disguised form in the second case, to the same (unique) nonlinear chiral multiplet. This provides an evidence that no other nonlinear chiral image multiplets exist. General sigma model type actions are discussed, together with the restricted potential terms coming from the Fayet–Iliopoulos terms associated with Abelian gauge superfields. As in our previous work, we use the manifestly supersymmetric language of image, image harmonic superspace. A novel point is the necessity to use in parallel the λ and τ gauge frames, with the “bridges” between these two frames playing a crucial role. It is the image harmonic analyticity which, though being non-manifest in the τ frame, gives rise to both linear and nonlinear chirality constraints.